Darío de Regoyos

DARÍO DE REGOYOS Y VALDÉS (Ribadesella, Asturias, 1857 - Barcelona, 1913).
"Basque port", c. 1885-1887.
Oil on cardboard.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 13 x 19 cm; 28 x 33 cm (frame).
This painting by Darío de Regoyos, which represents a Basque port at sunset or in the early hours of the day, is an eloquent example of the chromatic and atmospheric lyricism that characterizes much of his production matured in the last decades of the nineteenth century and the dawn of the twentieth century. The scene, constructed from a synthesis of forms and a restrained but expressive palette, reveals the artist's ability to capture the poetic dimension of the urban and coastal landscape, beyond its mere topographical representation.
The port, barely suggested by dark silhouettes of masts, roofs and barely differentiated constructions, rises in a sort of penumbra suspended over the water. In the background, a line of gently undulating mountains merges with the twilight sky in shades of violet, mauve and pink, bringing a melancholic calm to the whole. This enveloping atmosphere, with almost symbolic overtones, refers to a conception of landscape not as a document, but as a vehicle for emotion and contemplation.
The treatment of light is fundamental: the water in the foreground gathers green, blue and yellow reflections, whose vibration contrasts with the opaque density of the earth and the constructions. This dialectic between the luminous and the somber, between the concrete and the suggested, refers to an impressionist sensibility, but also to a symbolic introspection that moves away from descriptive naturalism. The brushstroke, loose and impastoed, contributes to that atmospheric indeterminacy that characterizes many of his works, where the pictorial matter is the bearer of both light and meaning.
The port as a theme is particularly relevant in Regoyos's work, not only because of its connection with modernity and transit, but also because of its inscription in the Basque imaginary that the artist approached with special devotion.

Darío de Regoyos trained in Madrid, at the San Fernando Academy (1878). Soon, induced by his teacher Carlos de Haes and his musician friends, Enrique F. Arbós and Isaac Albéniz, he settled in Brussels (1879), where he became a disciple of Josep Quinaux. In the Belgian capital he came into contact with E. Verhaeren, G. Rodenbach and M. Maeterlinck, a group of young creators who were forging the main Belgian cultural movement of the end of the century, an interest in which he himself would play an eminent role. Thus, he was part of the groups L'Essor (1881-83) and Les XX (1883-93). However, he never took root in any place; even during his Belgian period he frequently returned to Spain. During the 1980s he lived in the Basque Country, where he revitalized the already important local modern art school. In 1888 he accompanied the writer Verhaeren on a trip through Spain (he had already done it before with other Belgian companions), which would be the germ of his famous series "España negra" (Black Spain), published in Barcelona in 1899. If during the 1880s he only participated in exhibitions in Belgium and Holland, in the 1890s he would also participate in Paris, taking part regularly in the Salon des Indépendants. From these years he would also show his work in Madrid, Munich and Barcelona, the latter city where his painting was honored in 1894 by the most important figures of modernism. However, his work, marked by an impressionism of which he himself was one of the main definers, was not well accepted in the most conventional environments. In Belgium, Regoyos was also linked to the society La Libre Esthétique from its origin (1894), an association that gathered in this country the heritage of artistic modernism. In 1897 he held his first solo exhibition at the prominent Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris. The second, the following year, would take place at Els Quatre Gats in Barcelona, where he was artistic director of the magazine "Luz". Since 1900 the range of his exhibitions expanded, being his work shown in Bilbao, Frankfurt, Berlin, The Hague, Venice, Bayonne, San Sebastian, London, Mexico City, Bordeaux and Buenos Aires, among other cities. At the beginning of the 20th century Regoyos intensified his travels, living between Granada and Bilbao. In 1911 he settled in Barcelona, where he died two years later. He is represented in the Prado Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña in Barcelona, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao and the Gerstenmaier Collection, among many other museums and institutions.